Lowveld Country Club’s (LVCC) first cricket team has been in red-hot form of late, making history for the Mpumalanga Cricket Union in the process.

Most recently, LVCC competed in the Mpumalanga Premier League T20 Playoffs, to determine the provincial winner that will head to the CSA T20 Community Cup play-offs next year. They took on the representatives from Gert Sibande (Sasol Secunda) and Nkangala (the Daredevils) at Columbus Cricket Club in Middelburg on Sunday, November 24.

LVCC faced Sasol Secunda first, in the knockout to determine who would take on the hosts, the Daredevils, in the final. LVCC’s bowlers were on fire, bowling out the opposition for only 92 runs. Jon Hinrichsen shone, taking three wickets for six runs in 3.5 overs. Gareth Dukes, Sean Bellis and Francois Kroukamp claimed two wickets each along with one for Peter Gosling.

They made relatively light work of the chase, reaching the target of 93 in 8.5 overs. Musa Twala scored 31 not out off 25 balls, while Kroukamp scored 28 not out off 21 to secure an eight-wicket win. In the final against the Daredevils, LVCC would have to bowl first once again.

The Daredevils fared better than Sasol Secunda, but could still only manage to reach 128-7 in their 20 overs. Dukes took three wickets for 20 runs in four overs while Kroukamp and Jandru du Plooy took two wickets apiece.
In the run chase, LVCC got off to a great start thanks to Gosling thumping 31 off 13 balls before he was dismissed.

Only Yassar Cook was also able to match Gosling’s effort, scoring 31 off 24 balls to help steer LVCC over the line to win by five wickets. This cemented LVCC’s spot in next year’s CSA T20 Community Cup play-offs as Mpumalanga’s representative for the second year in a row.

Prior to the provincial play-offs, LVCC competed in this year’s CSA T20 Community Cup play-offs on November 14 in Pretoria, as they also won the provincial T20 competition last year. They faced Limpopo’s representatives, Potties Old Boys, in the semi-final and batted first, scoring 176-7 in 20 overs. Joshua Greef fired for LVCC scoring 51 off 33 balls, while Blake Schraader scored 37 off 21.

In defending their total, Cook claimed three wickets for seven runs in two overs for LVCC. Dukes and Jared Bone took two each, while Bellis claimed one. They bowled Potties Old Boys out for 86, to win by 90 runs.

They’d have to overcome a tough Irene Villagers side in the final if they were to make history for Mpumalanga cricket. However, rain would intervene midway through the game and would refuse to cease. This led to the game being rained out and no result being achieved.

With a representative required to go through to the national CSA T20 Community Cup to represent the northern regions of Cricket SA, rules dictated that a coin toss had to be held to determine the winner. LVCC captain Dwayne Obermeyer called heads, and called it right, winning the match for LVCC.

This makes LVCC the first-ever Mpumalanga cricket club since the formation of the Mpumalanga Cricket Union to progress to national championships.

“We are proud to represent the province in such a prestigious tournament, and we hope this is another step in the right direction for cricket in general within Mpumalanga,” LVCC’s chairperson, Dylan Cresswell, said.

Mpumalanga Cricket’s CEO, Jaco Visagie, also expressed his joy in their achievement. “This will provide excellent coverage for not only our local players, but also for our province,” he said.

“I’m very excited to see their performance at the championships, especially because we’ve been looked down upon as a younger union for years, and this is a massive step ahead.”

The national championships will take place in mid-December in Johannesburg.